Lawyers acting for a building boss said an ex-employee was on a dangerous adventure when he fell while traversing a 15-foot-drop and ended up a paraplegic.

Carpenter Rennard Russell, 63, is suing life-long friend Headley Stephenson after the 1992 accident.

Mr. Russell slipped from a pipe and ended up seriously hurt as he tried to cross a gap of less than four feet from the Flying Chef job site to his former apartment to fetch tools.

But in Supreme Court yesterday, lawyer Christian Luthi argued that Mr. Russell was not at work but was on his way to work when the accident happened.

"Mr. Russell was on his own time -- he was coming from his lunch.'' "Just because the place might once have been a building site, it doesn't mean it continues to be -- particularly when it has opened up as the Flying Chef.'' He said three out of Mr. Russell's four witnesses had described the manoeuvre as dangerous.

He said: "They would not have done it. He did it wearing sandals not proper work shoes.

"He had the accident when the work was completed except for a few extra requests.

"Mr. Russell volunteered, in the absence of instructions, in his slippers or sandals, carrying tools and a screwdriver in his back pocket on a day with showers.

"At the end of the day is he, Mr. Stephenson, liable, negligent? "To impose a duty on Mr. Stephenson in these circumstances is similar to impose on employers a duty to an employer that his employees look both ways when they cross the road.'' Mr. Luthi added that it would be like imposing on employers an expectation that their employees will not use common sense.

"It's like treating adult employees like children.'' He said Mr. Russell, now of Shelton Road, Pembroke, could not see where he was putting his leading foot when he stretched it down as he clambered over the wall to balance on the pipe.

And he said experts had testified that it would have taken just over a minute to walk around to get the tools to screw in corner brackets at the North Street, Pembroke restaurant.

Mr. Russell's lawyers said earlier in the case that Mr. Stephenson, of Knapton Estate, Smith's, had crossed the gap using a ladder and had let workers cross the gap to get drinking water and use Mr. Russell's toilet.

They said it was an accident waiting to happen.

But Mr. Luthi said: "Mr. Russell said he could not remember Mr. Stephenson using the ladder.

"All he said was that he had seen other guys using the ladder.'' He said: "There is no reason to think that because Mr. Russell saw Mr.

Stephenson use the ladder he should have anticipated he or anyone else would try without the ladder.'' Earlier the court heard from Health and Safety Officer Doris Foley who said Mr. Russell had said he had traversed the gap as a short cut to his apartment.

Mr. Russell's counsel Juliana Jack asked why she had not interviewed any of the other builders who had worked at the scene before writing her report.

Ms Foley said: "I don't know of any other employees.'' Mrs. Jack said other workers had testified they too had crossed the gap using a ladder.

But Ms Foley said Mr. Russell had been employed to do a job in the kitchen.

She said: "That was not the area he fell in.''